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SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



August, 1922 



The emergence of these economic phases 

 of agriculture has been very recent. When 

 good land near the markets was abundant 

 and produced large crops without the ne- 

 cessity of putting anything back into the 

 land there was very little thought of econ- 

 omizing the land. But with the fertility of 

 the soil becoming depleted and with the more 

 complex and highly organized groups be- 

 tween the producer and the consumer, it has 

 become necessary for the farmer to give 

 much thought as to how he can meet this 

 trading organization in all its parts and 

 not be overwhelmed by it. 



Professional economists have not concern- 

 ed themselves very much with the problems 

 of agricultural economics. The latter has 

 been left pretty largely to those in the agri- 

 cultural colleges and in these very few men 

 have the ability or knowledge that is re- 

 quisite to deal with them. Men who are 

 trained in animal husbandry, horticulture, 

 agronomy and kindred subjects of the agri- 

 cultural college course lack entirely the pre- 

 paration for undertaking the consideration of 

 economic problems. We are not decrying 

 the work of the agricultural colleges ; they 

 have done a great work in raising the status 

 of agricultural production and putting it 

 upon a scientific basis.' But after this has 

 been done there should then be, as the cap- 

 stone of their training, a thorough study of 

 the economics of agriculture, so as to give 

 those engaged in this pursuit the knowledge 

 of the great realm of business which is so 

 essential to their success. Because of this 

 lack of specialized training, the graduates of 

 the agricultural college, and frequently also 

 their instructors, have but a fragmentary and 

 su])erficial view of the economic questions 

 with which agriculture is related. 



In dealing with soils the colleges have 

 made a knowledge of chemistry an indispens- 

 able requisite; in order to be a well trained 

 veterinarian or animal husbandman a know- 

 ledge of biology, anatomy and chemistry is 

 necessary. It is strange that while these 

 subjects are carried on by scientific meth- 

 ods, it is yet thought by some that the 

 economic problems — which are the great 

 problems to-day — can be handled by purely 

 empirical methods. For instance, we have 

 heard rural credits discussed at times as if 

 the cost of the accumulation of capital or 

 even the productivity of capital did not need 

 to be considered in connection with this 



problem. Too often farm prices have been 

 considered and explained in terms of the 

 activities of the middlemen, who were re- 

 garded as mere toll-takers without any pro- 

 ductive function. Not infrequently, too, co- 

 operation has been put forth as the panacea 

 for all ills, under all circumstances, and 

 with all people, without taking into consid- 

 eration the fact that different peoples have 

 widely varying tendencies toward and capa- 

 cities for cooperation. 



Again, among some of the agricultural 

 leaders, including not a few of those who are 

 instructed in farm management at the agri- 

 cultural colleges, there has been the tendency 

 to regard economics as nothing more than 

 common sense. In reality, it is common 

 sense, but in this case, as in so many others 

 where common sense is invoked, that sense 

 is the rarest of all the senses. Economics is 

 common sense, but it must be enlightened 

 and instructed common sense. It takes more 

 than the ordinary common sense to solve the 

 intricacies of economic problems and among 

 the latter none are more intricate than those 

 pertaining to agriculture. There are many 

 business men who fail to grasp the meaning 

 and the application of economic principles 

 and even among students in the universities 

 there are not a few who are unable to com- 

 prehend the significance of economic phe- 

 nomena. One might as well try to teach 

 agronomy without chemistry or animal hus- 

 bandry without biology, as to master agri- 

 cultural economics without a knowledge of 

 the field of general economics. 



Without in any degree attempting to 

 disparage the agricultural colleges — which 

 would be far from our purpose — it may be 

 said that most of them offer no adequate 

 survey of the science of economics. In re- 

 cent years the curriculum of many of the 

 colleges has been augmented by the inclu- 

 sion of what is called economics; but upon 

 looking over the outline of such a course it 

 is found to be largely a mixture of subjects 

 connected with government, sociology and 

 civics, intended to give the students a more 

 intelligent interest in the world in which 

 they are to live. Occasionally a course is 

 given upon agricultural economics, but when 

 we examine the contents of such a course we 

 usually find it to consist of a general out- 

 line of two or three separate subjects — 

 usually cooperation, marketing and rural 

 credits — which must be merely descriptive 



